Vollmer Takes 14th in Injury-Shortened NCAA Pentathlon

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Senior Lindsay Vollmer earned a 14^th-place finish in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships inside the Randal Tyson Center Saturday afternoon. The finish came after Vollmer was forced to pull out of the final event, the 800 meters, due to an apparent leg injury suffered earlier in the day. The finish still earned Vollmer second team All-American honors in the event for the second time in her career.
 
The day could not have started any better for Vollmer, who re-wrote the school record book in her first event of the competition. In the 60-meter hurdles, Vollmer’s time blew away the rest in her heat and was only topped by two other competitors in the 15-woman field as she leaned through the finish in 8.29. The time was not only a new career best, but also broke Ashley Brown’s eight-year-old Kansas record in the event by .03 seconds. Vollmer’s career mark earned her 1,064 points and shot her up the leaderboard to third overall as the pentathletes headed to the high jump pit.
 
In the high jump, Vollmer continued her strong start to the competition by clearing four heights on only five attempts. She got over a top bar of 1.77 meters (5’9¾”), just a centimeter shy of her career best in the pentathlon high jump. The clearance earned her 941 more points to bring her overall total to 2,005 and move her to fourth after the first two events of the day.
 
Vollmer and the rest of the competitors then moved to the shot put ring. Her top throw didn’t rank among her all-time personal bests like the previous events. She hurled out a toss of 12.11 meters (39’8¾”) on her third and final attempt. The mark was the 11^th-farthest in the competition, which slid Vollmer to fifth with the long jump next.  
 
There were nervous moments for Vollmer and the Kansas camp on the long jump runway. The senior tallied fouls on both of her first two attempts, putting her entire competition in jeopardy if she were to foul a third time. Vollmer didn’t waiver under the pressure though, and posted a leap of 5.70 meters (18’8½”) on her third attempt. While the mark added 759 points to her overall score, the event proved to be a costly one for Vollmer as she injured her leg as she went through her warm-ups prior to the start.
 
Sitting in seventh entering the fifth and final event, the 800 meters, Vollmer courageously gave it a go but was unable to complete the race and pulled out after the first 200 meters.
 
Vollmer finished with a final score of 3,432 points to finish 14^th overall. The place was good enough to put her on the All-America second for the second time in her KU career.
 
With the final indoor meet of the season in the books, the Kansas track & field squads will now turn their attention to the outdoor portion of the 2015 campaign. The Jayhawks will first journey to Austin, Texas for the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, set to take place March 25-28. Follow all the Jayhawks’ performances throughout the week by logging on to Twitter, Instagram and Vine at @KUTrack.

 
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